Rainy days and Mondays

St Bérenger

Mr Meteo has been being economic with the truth again. For weeks he was telling me that we were going to have really bad weather. Day after day he was the prophet of doom but we were right on the cusp of a weather front and managed to stay safe from the rain and storms.

Until now. Now when we have daughter #1 and granddaughter to stay for a week. The first time daughter #1 has been able to get down here for several years.

It started on Saturday evening when we were due to collect them from Toulouse airport. As they were arriving very late, we decided to pop in on friends who live south of here on the way and then moved on with one of our friends to a local auberge. We had a fun evening there and some very nice food.

As we were leaving we noticed a nice light display in the distance. Then we realised that it was lightning and was heading our way. Fifteen minutes later the heavens opened and it was as though someone was throwing heavy buckets of water out of the sky over us. The lightning was spectacular but we couldn’t hear the thunder over the sound of the rain on the car roof. Jon had to slow down to a crawl so that he could see where we were going. This continued for 40 minutes until we reached the airport and a further 10 minutes while we sat in the car waiting for it to ease a little so that we could get into the terminal building without drowning on the way.

Needless to say the plane was delayed by 45 minutes anyway so we hung around in the terminal waiting for them to land.

The rain continued for the 90 minute drive home but finally eased off just after we got back.

After a cup of tea and cocoa to revive their flagging spirits, we escorted our guests to the pool house to the accompaniment of a babbling brook singing away behind us. The garden stream was back.

Sunday morning seemed brighter. At least the clouds were thick white ones instead of thick grey ones. The stream had passed through down to the river and, although the garden was soggy, it was warm and granddaughter and I had a swim in the warm pool (it was warmer than the outside air).

Sadly the brightness didn’t last and it drizzled on and off all day yesterday. This morning is dark but not yet raining. I'm sure it will though.

We don’t plan days out for guests these days. Most of our visitors have been to the region before and know the sites well, but it would be nice to have some sunshine so that we could go for a drive and look at some views, or stroll around a market without getting wet, or sit on a restaurant terrace overlooking a river valley and enjoy the peace of a French lunchtime. Mr Meteo is forecasting a miserable few days and I just wish he would be proved wrong this time as well but it doesn’t look very promising. We will make the most of the dry times and will so enjoy having the girls here with us this week. Now I’m off to the loft to find those board games, packs of cards and jigsaws we put away ‘for a rainy day’ as I think it may have already arrived.